Published 4:00 am, Monday, May 16, 2011

Boticca is a marketplace that connects buyers with under-the-radar designers who want to sell jewelry and fashion accessories in a more "upscale" site than, say, eBay or Etsy.

We spoke with Boticca's co-founder and CEO Kiyan Foroughi about the startup's concept and where they're going.

Foroughi told us he got the idea for Boticca after travelling to Morocco where he met a really talented artisan making jewellery, who had to spend most of her time trekking to and from cities to sell her creations.

Latest business videos

Foroughi "did a bunch of research and realized that there wasn't a site out there that: 1) focused only on talented, emerging fashion accessories designers; 2) did it in a luxury retail environment; 3) gave designers the lion share of the economics (they make 75% of the retail price with us as opposed to the 30-40% that they are used to with stockists and retailers) and 4) gave them distribution and brand recognition on a truly global basis." He and his co-founder Avid Larizadeh launched the site in October 2010.

Another thing that makes Boticca stand out is its truly global audience: one third North America, one third Europe and one third Middle East and Asia. In fact, Foroughi tells us he chose London as a base of operations because it's in the middle of the world's time zones and so best place to build a business that's global from day one.

The startup now has 9 employees representing 7 nationalities and hopes to grow that fast with the new funding. Boticca, which hand-selects each designer it accepts, now has 180 of them and is adding about 20 a week.

The prospects for the business seem to be good. The store already has high selection and it does seem to tap a market that's in need of an offering like that. Foroughi tells us the average purchase is above $160 excluding shipping, which is high for online retail, though it makes sense for luxury/fashion accessories.

So the business definitely looks promising. Let's see what it's like now.

Here's what the homepage looks like. Classy.

Boticca also features content, like fashion advice from a Vogue editor

You can also shop for products by which celebrities wore them; here, this necklace was on Gossip Girl